Improving comprehension and cooperation through code structure

Defining a relationship between a software system's architecture and the process' efforts is one of the most fascinating questions of software engineering. Apparently, when a system's architecture is complex, the process to improve and evolve it will be more difficult. We try to tackle this question from a different point of view: given an open source system, in all the phases of its evolution, we focus on both the aspects of software developers, and the obtained software product. More we observe one of the possible architectures of this system, based on the tree structure derived from source components. First conclusions show that some patterns of tree evolution are recognizable: some branches may appear more promising than other, and are extensively evolved, while other remains in the same status for all the life cycle. More, when the tree structure reaches some status, the process of joining as a core developer seems to forestall.